What I Learnt From The Llama Business

My father was a great entrepreneur and he started a family business called The Llama Business long even before I was born, I knew not involved until I joined collage. When I was in college, my dad gave me a job. He told me I could earn extra in addition to my allowance if I worked for him and the family business. I thought it was a great idea and who doesn’t want extra money, right?

So I agreed, and he gave me the job as a disbursement officer. It was a fancy job title, but all I had to do was make the payroll, count salaries, and give employees their paychecks every weekend. I even felt overcompensated at times because it was such a fairly easy job. I had no questions. I didn’t even bother asking about taxes or any of that stuff. But that family business opened my mind that even after it collapsed is decided to try out my own business after was motivated by a dynamic speaker.

My reason to try out this company, in the beginning, was probably the same as other peoples reason. I intently watched a dynamic speaker deliver this opportunity. It was given by a charismatic speaker who turned out to be a very close friend and an excellent mentor through the years. His income went from $100K to almost $1M over the next 7 years.

My income did get to about $2,000 consistently per month. That’s not because of the company, but because of me. It had to be something I was doing – or not doing. I focused on the things that I was best at. I had a top 100 list and added to that, my “warm market list” these are the people that are more successful than you and have a high center of influence in the community that most of us were afraid to call, I talked to my friends and family (well not so much my family).

I learned the old method of prospecting called the 3-foot rule; I got a phone line installed in the back of the office where I cold called right out of the white pages I started with the M’s one by one and then I got a hit! This guy turned out to be one of my best team members and friend. Who incidentally is the same guy years later who would marry me to my wife?

The next big event became the focus and how many were you committing to bring with you. Did I get better? Sure, because I committed to the system my trainer laid out before me. Besides, this is how he built his business 13+ years before me, and it should work for me too, right? Though I kept a great attitude through it all, I was burnt out. I always knew it would work for me. The biggest problem was talking to a lot of people, committed to me who could duplicate my efforts and sustain it long enough to win. I helped bring in a lot of teammates in several states. I did this for years, and it felt like a job.

Now, back to the title of this article, “Did I make the right decision to leave my mom business after investing 6+ years of my life?”

And the answer is, Yes, for me that was the right decision. I gave it my best for a long time without the results I expected. My wife thinks I wasted my time in that business. Let me say again, “My results are not intended to be a poor reflection of the company. The results I had simply meant I needed to change my strategy.” My story may sound the same to a lot of you, or you may have experienced something similar.

In fact, I’ve come across strategies to generate free leads online; I’ve found if you’re using the right marketing platform. I was using an outdated approach to building my business. I was racing thoroughbreds with an old mule. Those strategies still work today but at a snails pace. There is no way you would compete with someone who is marketing their business online. It was pointed out to me by my good friend Larry, that it’s called “Network Marketing,” I had the Networking part down. It was the Marketing part that was totally missing. No one ever talked about marketing our businesses online.

The Llama Business I observed that when parents teach their kids and impart to them knowledge and wisdom, it is different from when managers teach their subordinates to do something. There are more tolerance and kindness in the family business. This is because parents want the best for their children and is teaching them the ways they see fit should the future generation be the ones running the family business. In other words, private companies will not have any trouble firing and replacing employees while parents will have a really hard time disowning their children.